Subject
Antidulcinist
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Date
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A. Sklyarenko: "...the famous writer Pyotr Nikolaevich...says that he is an antidulcinist, a person who doesn't like sweets ("The Event," Act Two). According to A. Babikov..."antidulcinist" hints at Dolce stil novo (the literary movement of the 13th century in Italy) and at Eugene Onegin ('Here was, to epigrams addicted / a gentleman cross with everything: / with the too-sweet tea of the hostess')..."
JM: In Nabokov's EO, ch.6,XLIV, lines 5-6, we read: "Dreams, dreams! Where is your dulcitude?/ Where is (its stock rhyme) juventude?" and he dwells on his choice of the word "dulcitude" to translate "sweetness" (Pushkin's sládost'), to add an archaic touch to his translation, before he'll pair it with "juventude" (mládost').
Nabokov recognizes that "the analogy is strained"*. Perhaps he is partially critical of his indulgence in verbal sweets! Would this make of him a stylistic "antidulcinist," too?
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*"The noun mólodost' ('youth,' as a state or a period) has an archaic form, mládost', no longer in use even in poetry[...] there are passages where mladost' should be rendered by 'youthhood' or by an even more obsolete word. Thus, when ...Pushkin laments the passing of youth and mentions a twinning rof rhyme words that in our times would not come about, one twin being dead - Mecht,mecht! gde vásha sládost'?/ Gde, véchnaya h ney rífma, "mládost' "? - this translator has not been able to resit the temptation of Dreams, dreams! Where is your dulcitude?/ Where is (its stock rhyme) juventude?" It may be argued that in no age has dulcitude-juventude cropped up commonly in English poetry as sládost' - mládost' did in Pushknin's day and that therefore the analogy is strained. It might have been wiser to render the terminals as 'sweetness' and'youth' and explain the situation in a note."
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JM: In Nabokov's EO, ch.6,XLIV, lines 5-6, we read: "Dreams, dreams! Where is your dulcitude?/ Where is (its stock rhyme) juventude?" and he dwells on his choice of the word "dulcitude" to translate "sweetness" (Pushkin's sládost'), to add an archaic touch to his translation, before he'll pair it with "juventude" (mládost').
Nabokov recognizes that "the analogy is strained"*. Perhaps he is partially critical of his indulgence in verbal sweets! Would this make of him a stylistic "antidulcinist," too?
..................................................................................................................
*"The noun mólodost' ('youth,' as a state or a period) has an archaic form, mládost', no longer in use even in poetry[...] there are passages where mladost' should be rendered by 'youthhood' or by an even more obsolete word. Thus, when ...Pushkin laments the passing of youth and mentions a twinning rof rhyme words that in our times would not come about, one twin being dead - Mecht,mecht! gde vásha sládost'?/ Gde, véchnaya h ney rífma, "mládost' "? - this translator has not been able to resit the temptation of Dreams, dreams! Where is your dulcitude?/ Where is (its stock rhyme) juventude?" It may be argued that in no age has dulcitude-juventude cropped up commonly in English poetry as sládost' - mládost' did in Pushknin's day and that therefore the analogy is strained. It might have been wiser to render the terminals as 'sweetness' and'youth' and explain the situation in a note."
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/